How did you do it?

[CCAdamson]

I have been reading/printing papers to get my business started and I am pretty sure I can handle everything but I did have some questions.

Did any of you use a service like Legalzoom or Bizfilings to start your business? What was your experience like?
Do you have a "registered agent" and if so how did you go about getting one? Were you required to? Can I be my own registered agent?
What exactly is a registered agent, I looked it up but don't understand why you need a third party to do what they do.

Thank you

[Freelancier]

Didn't use any of those services, but then again, I had my first corporation 20 years ago before they existed, and now it's "old hat" to me.

You only need a registered agent if you don't have a physical address to receive legal documents or court filings in the state where you're creating the business. If you already live there, no reason you need an agent if you don't want to pay for that service.

I have a business in Florida and live in Georgia, so for the purpose of my Florida LLC (which is considered a "foreign" business in that state, because it doesn't have a physical presence there), I use my sister as my registered agent. And we're on year 3 and she still hasn't received anything. My Georgia businesses don't have a registered agent, because I live here and can receive those documents on behalf of the entities.

[David Hunter]

I never used any of those services.

For Ohio, I just printed the forms from the Ohio Secretary of State, filled them out (took about 2 minutes), signed it, put it in the mail (I used the regular service... they wanted extra money to expedite... but it took less than a week for them to file) along with a check, and less than a week I had my LLC.

[JC]

I have been reading/printing papers to get my business started and I am pretty sure I can handle everything but I did have some questions.

Did any of you use a service like Legalzoom or Bizfilings to start your business? What was your experience like?
Do you have a "registered agent" and if so how did you go about getting one? Were you required to? Can I be my own registered agent?
What exactly is a registered agent, I looked it up but don't understand why you need a third party to do what they do.

Thank you

I used Legal Zoom and they were pretty good, I liked them because I didn't know exactly what I needed to do and they took care of that and were relatively cheap. One regret I had was that they offered other services that are tailored to advise me as a new owner and I accepted without understanding that they're giving my contact info out to various outside companies that kept calling me over the next few months. Other than that, not bad...they take you by the hand and lead you through the process.